


The Colors of Home

by azymondiaz



Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: Alternate Universe - Hockey, Angst with a Happy Ending, Domestic Fluff, Enemies to Lovers, Explicit Sexual Content, F/F, F/M, Fluff and Humor, M/M, Mutual Pining, Older Chocobros (Final Fantasy XV), Other Additional Tags to Be Added, figure skating AU
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-03-21
Updated: 2021-03-15
Packaged: 2021-03-23 13:54:54
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,151
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30056493
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/azymondiaz/pseuds/azymondiaz
Summary: This year's hockey season started out like any another for Gladiolus Amiticia, that is until he gets an unexpected visitor: a young girl claiming to be his and his ex-fiancée's daughter. With no way to contact her mother, Gladio rises to the challenge of being a single father and falls for the last person on Eos he thought possible.
Relationships: Gladiolus Amicitia/Ignis Scientia, Minor or Background Relationship(s), Prompto Argentum/Noctis Lucis Caelum
Comments: 4
Kudos: 2





	The Colors of Home

Eyes from the packed stands and from every television in Eos were watching, their gaze threatening to pierce right through her resolve. She didn’t waver. Closing her own, she whispered a prayer to the Six. 

It seemed like ages before the song composed just for her short program, _Somnus_ , started to play, bringing an abrupt end to the deafening silence in the venue. A calmness washed over her when the blades of her skates began to scrape against the smooth ice. In that moment she knew her prayer had been heard. 

She was flying across the rink, etching her name into it with elegant spins and step sequences carefully choreographed to match the intensity of the vocals and tranquility of the instrumentals. With a deep breath, she took a leap off the ice and one of faith. Gentiana landed a quadruple axel, the first successful one in all of figure skating history, followed by a flawless triple lutz, sending the audience into a roaring frenzy. 

Not even her coach, Camelia Claustra, was expecting her to execute the move, let alone with such effortless grace. She couldn’t help but grimace, warning Gentiana that the risk of injury wasn’t worth any amount of points. The young skater had a bad habit of defying her coach that way. 

Camelia thought it must’ve been fluke; not once had she been able to land the axel in practice. But then she did it again and again, each time the rotations increased slightly until she landed for a final time with a quintuple axel, then finished with another dizzying spin. She opened her eyes again, not realizing she had them closed the entire show. 

Gentiana, the dark horse of the Grand Prix Final, was now a gold medalist and figure skating legend, and she still had one more program to go. The other skaters knew there was no topping that. 

One of the commentators dubbed her _the Goddess of Ice_ as she made her way off the rink and was promptly greeted by a tsunami of bouquets. It wasn’t just the jumps she landed, thought to be impossible before now, that earned her that nickname. It was the way she mesmerized the audience with her every movement, much like a siren trying to lure unsuspecting fishermen at sea. 

She touched the hearts of millions with her passion, not her finesse. She defeated the undefeated without so much as a single medal to her name. Gentiana ignited a fire in those wide, amber eyes, the pair watching from a television somewhere in Eos that were now so full of hope and wonder that had never been there before. 

She hadn’t anticipated this sort of victory. She didn’t envy the gold medalist status or the fame that came with it like the other skaters. Her prayer was simply this; Gentiana asked the Six to give her the strength to keep fighting so she could be the last one skating on the ice. 

*

His eyes were analyzing the rink, determining his next move for the remaining few seconds of the match. As soon as they crossed over into his zone, Gladio stole the puck from underneath the opposing team, the Hammerhead Sharks. He had to protect the puck until he saw an opening, but there was none. He was forced to pivot backwards on his skates, sending shavings of ice flying everywhere as the other team’s defensemen stayed on his tail. No one would be able to steal the puck back from him as good as he was, but they were running out of time and both teams were playing to win. 

Finally, Gladio saw an opportunity, a very risky pass that could cost them the match. Yet he trusted Noctis to catch his pass anyway and struck the puck with his stick. Noctis caught Gladio’s drift and charged away to where he could meet the puck before their opponents realized their game plan. Once he got it, Noctis pressed forward, weaving through the opponents. He saw Prompto, wide open and ready to shoot, but one of the opponents attempted to steal it from him and before he knew it, the puck was airborne. 

Prompto was swift and headed towards the puck at full speed. Lucky for him, he was smaller in stature compared to most hockey players, making him much quicker on the ice. Raising his stick, Prompto made contact with the airborne puck and batted it with his entire body, scoring on the opposing side from their zone. The timer went off with a blaring buzz, signaling the end of the match. Prompto pumped his fists in the air and sang his usual victory fanfare before joining the rest of the team for a short meeting. 

“Did ya see that, Biggs? Argentum scores another midair shot, breaking the tie with only a few seconds to spare!” one of the commentators boomed. 

“I sure did, Wedge. It’s no wonder they call him the _Crack Shot_. But he wasn’t the only player that shined tonight. Both Caelum and Amicitia made some incredibly difficult passes to keep the puck in play. It was a close game, but a victory for Insomnia nonetheless.”

“There’s no doubt the three of them carry the team, but for how long? Will Insomnia finally ascend to play for Lucis at internationals? Or will the team be stuck warming the bench just like every other season?” Wedge added. He was particularly blunt in his statements. “The Insomnia Dragons just aren’t the same team we knew a decade ago.”

“You can say that again.” Biggs agreed in that painfully monotonous commentator voice. “Something’s gotta give, or Insomnia can kiss their chances of ever reclaiming the championship ring goodbye.”

The trio heard every word of what the commentators said from the locker room television as they changed out of their gear and hit the showers. Deep down, they knew they had a point. 

The three of them individually were talented, big name hockey players. As the team’s sniper, Prompto Argentum earned himself the nickname _Crack Shot,_ virtually having never missed the goal when he took a shot. Gladiolus Amicitia, the team’s defenseman, was dubbed _The Shield_ early on in his career for his remarkable blocking and rebounding capabilities. 

Noctis Lucis Caelum, the center for Insomnia’s team, hadn’t earned his nickname just for being a gifted player since his youth, but also for the legacy he’s burdened to uphold. His late father and hockey legend, Regis Lucis Caelum, was revered as _The King of the Rink_ . Even his grandfather before him was a renowned hockey player. Subsequently, Noctis bore the title _Prince of the Rink_ , a nickname he dreaded with every fiber of his being. The pressure and expectation that came with it had always put a bitter taste in his mouth, especially when the team had nothing to show for it with its current roster. 

Put the three of them together on the rink and the men were even more impressive, but a hockey team consisted of 6 players working together in unison, not just 3. It was not that their teammates were lacking in skill, their hearts just weren’t in it. Insomnia’s team was only as strong as its weakest link, after all. 

The question of whether his friends thought this season would turn out like the last was resting on the tip of his tongue, but Prompto thought better of it. He elected to ignore the elephant in the room along with Noctis and Gladio as they washed the grime off their bodies and changed into more comfortable clothing. The three men walked side by side with Noctis in the middle as they made their way out of the Coliseum and towards the parking lot. 

“You guys ready to get your asses kicked?” Gladio teased. The three of them typically had their game night after Saturday evening matches. 

“Shit, that was tonight? Sorry, but I can’t.” Noctis replied regretfully. 

“What? You got other plans?” Gladio asked. 

“Gotta pick up my brother from the airport bright and early.” Noctis almost groaned, particularly when he said _bright and early._

Gladio and Prompto gave each other a confused look before Prompto jumped in front of Noctis, blocking his path for a brief moment. “Woah woah woah, wait a minute. Since when do you have a brother?” 

“Or get up early for that matter?” Gladio added. 

“Since forever?” Noctis said as if he sounded unsure. He hadn’t realized he never mentioned his brother to his best friends until now. 

“Then how come we’ve never seen or heard of him?” Gladio finally asked. He shot an unamused look at Noctis as he took in this new information, thinking back on how the three of them spent basically every moment together since grade school. There was never a brother in the picture, not even for a visit on breaks or the holidays. 

“Uhm, same mom, different dad.” Noctis explained. “When she passed, he went to go live with his father in Tenebrae before I even met you guys. Haven’t seen him in person since, but we still talk to each other everyday.”

“Huh, all these years of knowing you and we never knew you had a sibling?” Gladio said, more to himself than to his friends. 

“Yeah, it’s like I don’t even know you anymore!” Prompto cried in a mocking tone. 

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to keep it a secret.” Noctis laughed apologetically. “Anyway, he’s staying with me until he can find his own place. I’ll introduce you guys once he’s settled in.” 

“You better,” Gladio warned him. 

“Y’know, if you wanna sleep in, I can always pick him up for you, Noct.” 

They all knew Prompto’s proposal was only a joke, but he secretly hoped Noctis would at least offer to let him ride to the airport with him. If he asked himself, Noctis wouldn’t say no, but he worried he might interrupt some sacred sibling bonding moment if he wasn’t invited. After all, he was an only child. He didn’t know how these things worked. 

“And let you crash the Regalia, again? Not a chance.” Noctis laughed at the suggestion as he unlocked the door to his car and hopped inside. “I’ll see you guys at practice.”

“See ya” Gladio and Prompto said in sync, waving goodbye as Noctis drove off. 

The two headed towards the downtown train station, having conversations that would jump from one topic to the next. They could talk about anything, whether it was just two of them or all three, as best friends often did. Gladio and Prompto agreed to postpone their game night until the next time Noctis could join them and boarded different trains after saying goodnight. 

The ride home for Gladio went by in an instant. The next thing he knew, he was unlocking the door to his condo on the top floor of the complex, haphazardly tossing his hockey gear into the genkan and slipping into his house shoes. The view of Insomnia was always breathtaking at night through the floor-to-ceiling windows in his living room. Although, the actual interior of the condo was nothing to write home about. 

It was simple, but not too basic. He hadn’t decorated the walls with any magnificent art pieces or collectibles, but there were many books and some pictures Prompto had snapped of the two of them and Noctis. It had its own character and warmth to it that were lost in the many contemporary flats surrounding his. 

With the fortune Gladio had amassed from being a pro hockey player, he could easily afford a mansion and his own Regalia if he desired it. But he preferred his cozy condo. He didn’t have a family to fill all the rooms of a mansion like the one Noctis inherited from his father. It was just the right size for one. Maybe two if he were having a one night stand. Or three if it was game night. There was no need for a flashy car when it was just him when the trains were much faster for getting around. Walking to the stations was the closest he could get to nature in the city. 

As much as his condo was a safe haven to him, he wondered if maybe something was missing from it as he hopped into bed. Gladio often thought this way once he started drifting off to sleep, but he could never quite place his finger on it. He had Noctis and Prompto, he had hockey, and he was able to live more comfortably than most due to his career. What else was there to life? 

He was never religious, but he prayed silently to the Six anyway. He hoped, if they were really out there, that they could help him find what he was looking for. Before long, he was fast asleep, not having to worry about the answer until another day. 

**Author's Note:**

> This is the very first fan-fiction that I've ever written, so I hope you all enjoy it and thank you so much for reading! And a special thanks to my friend Amitiel for beta-reading this ^_^


End file.
